A Date (1)

Chàng Bo 's eyes were wide, "I brought them here! What do you mean by tha-"

Mao Lu cut Chàng Bo off, "It doesn't matter, forget I said anything. Just know that I am dealing with this in my own way. And if I find out you've been spreading this information then I will view that as a betrayal of my trust. I already saved you from eternal incarceration, don't make me regret my decision."

"Incarceration? You mean at the meeting, they were planning to imprison me?" Chàng Bo questioned.

"Yes. But I prevented it and… and… Nevermind. We'll discuss this at a better time. This isn't the way I wanted to tell you about this." Mao Lu sighed, standing up, "For now, for me and for yourself, just keep information about the Irregularities a secret. I'm not saying this out of cowardice, but out of necessity." He said, giving Chàng Bo a final serious look before walking out the bedroom.

The door closing behind him with a "Bang!"

Chàng Bo froze a little, "What did he mean by, I brought them here?"

His brain whirred, suddenly the pieces of the puzzle began to fix together, "I see."

The reason why the Gatekeepers were so sensitive about the Gatekeepers key, the reason they even called a meeting because he used the key. It was obvious from the start that the Gatekeeper keys were much more than what they seemed, and many practitioners believed that there was a large secret behind them.

The Irregularities and the Gatekeeper keys must be linked! When he used one to escape to this Realm then somehow he also brought with him those creatures. Then that would mean, just as Mao Lu had said, "I brought them here. Then all of this really is my fault. No wonder the Gatekeepers want to incarcerate me, this really is a very serious matter." He sighed, "And Mao Lu is helping me, healing my wounds, giving me a place to stay, and even preventing my incarceration and I repay him by arguing with him and calling him coward. I'm the worst."

Chàng Bo surprised himself. "I'm the worst?" In the past no matter what he did and no matter how he treated people, he never considered other people's feelings. He'd never felt guilty or regretted anything he had said or done before. He was the future Celestial Sovereign, a genius beyond geniuses, a talent that all those in the same generation could never catch up to. He was usually rather pompous and arrogant. Yet why did he feel so uneasy now for saying one bad thing to Mao Lu?

"Is it because I'm worried that it'll affect my mission to deepen out bond?" Yet even as he muttered that, Chàng Bo felt that that was wrong. It wasn't that he was concerned about the mission, he just generally felt regretful about the what he'd said.

Chàng Bo sat on the bed for a bit staring at the ceiling, but he soon couldn't take this strange feeling of guilt, and leaped up. He bounded out of the room at lightning speed, only stopping when he was outside Mao Lu's door.

He hovered there awkwardly until he coughed, clearing his voice, "I didn't know that I caused this, but even so my opinion doesn't change. I don't understand why the Gatekeepers must always keep such important secrets. I don't like it. When we fought that monster I...I was scared. It is not a feeling I experience often and I don't like admitting it, but against it I felt helpless. And that helplessness drove me to saying those thing I said to you earlier.

I'm not making excuses for myself, I'm just trying to explain why I said what I did." He paused, there was no response. "Of course I am aware that Gatekeepers have their own traditions and rules, which I will probably never understand or know. And I saw how powerful you were, the way you got rid of that creature was impressive. So-so...what I'm trying to say is that I respect your decision. I promise that I will keep any information about the Irregularities a secret and since I am responsible for this I will help you fight these creatures, at least I'll try to be helpful."

Chàng Bo face flushed a bit, he'd never apologised to anyone before, he was aware that he was doing it badly, and he felt both embarrassed and awkward. "A-A...and it was very wrong of me to call you a coward. You're not one. You've saved my life, and given me a place to stay, and even protected me from an eerie punishment. I should be grateful, yet I bit the hand that fed me….so..what I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry!"

Chàng Bo looked up and saw Mao Lu standing there, his bedroom door open. The moment their eyes connected Mao Lu burst into laughter.

"HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!" he clutched his sides as he laughed loudly, "You call that an apology, that was the worst apology I've ever received, but," he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. "I forgive you. You know I was only a little angry. I mean I understand where you're coming from and why you said what you did. So don't worry about it." Mao Lu grinned widely, his smile like a gleaming bright sun.

At first Chàng Bo felt relieved hearing this, but then his eyebrow twitched, "That was my first apology ever. I was seriously speaking to you, and you just laugh at me!"

"That was your first ever apology, wow really!" Mao Lu said in disbelief.

"I have never felt the need to apologise before. This is the first time, yet it seems it was wasted since you took my rare words and laughed at them."

Seeing Chàng Bo's serious face Mao Lu began laughing again, "I'm sorry I can't take you seriously.."

Chàng Bo's face went a peculiar pink as he watched Mao Lu snigger at him. "Fine then, forget I said anything." He turned around angrily.

Mao Lu grabbed his sleeve, "No, no, no don't go. I wasn't mocking you. I just think it's rather funny how awkward you are at apologising" Awkward and cute, "Okay say it again. I swear I won't laugh at you this time."

Chàng Bo glanced at him, "I don't feel like it now."

"O come on do it again. I won't laugh." Mao Lu insisted.

"Then you better not laugh this time."

"I promise I won't."

"Then" Chàng Bo looked at Mao Lu with full seriousness, "I'm sorry for calling you a coward. You're not one."

Mao Lu felt his heart beat erratically, "Un, I accept your apology." He smiled sweetly.

Chàng Bo smiled back, "That's more like it."

A gentle breeze blew past them, and Mao Lu couldn't help but think that the mood right now was rather nice.

"I need to tell him about the Fate Companionship soon. Should I do it now?...No maybe not now, but I should do it today. I can't keep putting it off" he thought.

"Is there something wrong with me? You've been staring at me for awhile." Chàng Bo interrupted Mao Lu's thoughts.

"Oh.. Ummm…No… I" Mao Lu's eyes wandered about the courtyard in panic and then landed back at Chàng Bo. " I was just wondering if you'd like to go out for a bit. I'm sure you haven't seen much other than my place right?"

"Yes you're right." Chàng Bo agreed.

"Then let's go out." Mao Lu decided that he'd show Chàng Bo around and spend a nice day with him, and then he'd tell him.

He wanted to get to know Chàng Bo better.

"Okay, give me a moment. I'm going to change out of my Gatekeepers robes and into something more casual." Mao Lu said hurriedly as he turned back into his room. Just a few moments later he came out wearing some black denim jeans, a GAP hoodie, and a pair of adidas trainers. He was tying up his hair when he glanced over at Chàng Bo, who was still wearing his star patterned robes.

"You can't go out like that!" Mao Lu gasped, that outfit would lead to all kinds of unwanted attention, especially since Chàng Bo's robes were so surreal. "Come here" Mao Lu said as he dragged Chàng Bo into his room.

He hurried to his wardrobe, "I came into money recently so I treated myself to some new clothes, I'm sure out of all the stuff I bought some of it should fit you. We're about the same height, well you're a little taller and you've got more muscles but I'm sure my stuff will fit you." Mao Lu mumbled as he rummaged through his wardrobe.

Chàng Bo looked around the room inquisitively, he'd wondered what a Gatekeepers private room would look like and he was surprised by how normal it was. It was a very clean room, and had plain white theme towards it. Around the windowsill there was a small bonsai tree and other fresh flowers blooming in vases.

There were a few personal touches, such as across the walls there were photographs hanging up on pegs. Photos of Mao Lu with his friends, older pictures and more recent pictures. Overall the room was very normal.

"Aha, this should be fine. I bought this nike tracksuit a few weeks ago, I never got the opportunity to try it on. It should fit you." Mao Lu exclaimed as he held up a white tracksuit towards Chàng Bo.

Chàng Bo stared at the outfit with a scrutinizing expression before taking it from Mao Lu, it wasn't exactly his style but if he had to wear it to fit in, then he might as well. "I'll go change into this then." He turned and headed back to his room.

In less than five minutes Chàng Bo was dressed in the tracksuit, Mao Lu felt himself blush a bit, "Does he look good in anything he wears?"

Chàng Bo was like one of those foreign supermodels you see on the cover of Vogue. With his glossy long black hair, and sparkling blue eyes and chiselled and silky jade like features, he really was too gorgeous in that tracksuit.

"Is it okay?" Chàng Bo asked a bit meekly, he didn't know why but he felt very embarrassed right now, especially when he saw the bright way Mao Lu was looking at him.

Mao Lu put up both his hands in a thumbs up. "It's fantastic."

Soon both Chàng Bo and Mao Lu were sitting in his Maserati Gran Turismo.

"This is?" Chàng Bo asked curiously as he looked around the vehicle.

"Ah, this is a car. It's a machine used for transportation. Do they not have such things where you're from?"

"Oh a machine for transportation, so it's similar to a carriage. There are plenty of carriages in my Realm but I've never seen a carriage like this before though, how does it move without horses, pegasus, or some other kind of creature pulling it?" Chàng Bo inquired, growing more and more excited as he sat in the car seat.

"Oh well that's because it has an engine that burns fuel to create energy, and it uses that energy to power the car. I'm not a mechanic so I'm not 100% sure about the specifics but it's basically that." Mao Lu answered as he turned his key, the engine started and began to purr.

"Ooo" Chàng Bo marvelled like a child.

"You should buckle your seatbelt for safety" Mao Lu said as he leaned over and pulled Chàng Bo's seat belt across for him, buckling it into the holster. Mao Lu's heart raced as he did this. It had always been a fantasy of his to put a seatbelt on for his lover, something about the movement was just kind of exhilarating. Of course Chàng Bo and himself weren't lovers, but Mao Lu did like him and that was enough.

"Now that i think about it, is this kind of like a date?" Mao Lu squirmed a little at the thought. "No no no, it's not, I need to calm down."

"So, let's go." Mao Lu said as he drove the car out of his driveway and down the main street.

In the three days that Mao Lu and Chàng Bo had been sleeping the weather had been very warm and the previous snow had entirely disappeared. The roads were rather busy, the sky was rather blue.

Mao Lu switched on the radio.

"So again we see sunny skies with a temperature of 26 degrees. Compared to the previous days of snows and blizzards that Beijing has faced, this weather is truly a blessing." A radio broadcaster said.

"It really is a blessing Ou Li, this weather just shows that despite disaster, we Beijingers can make it through anything. At the end of a blizzard there is always the sun." Another broadcaster said.

"Is that a play on the idiom 'There's always a light at the end of a tunnel' Rei Be? And I totally agree. That 6.7 earthquake on Sunday was the worst Beijing has ever faced, with 208 casualties. The fact that many of us can see a bright sunny day and the fact that construction is going on strong, just shows that we Beijingers are strong." Ou Li said.

"With the amount of destruction and buildings that collapsed I was sure that there would be a lot more casualties, many are saying on forums that Beijing was very lucky." Rei Be commented.

"Well can you blame the Netizens for saying that, over three apartment complexes collapsed, a large crater was created in the Tiananmen area around Zhongshan park as well. The fact that there were only 208 casualties is a miracle. Of course to the 208 dead we must give our condolences to their families and loved ones who are suffering through all of this. And of course there are hundreds more people that are in the hospitals suffering from serious injuries. But truly we have to applaud our fantastic emergency services and disaster relief workers for the amazing job they did, or else the tragedies could have been a lot worse." Ou Li proclaimed.

" I one hundred percent agree with that Ou Li. But we'll have to stop here, look at the time it is nearly 10am and the end of our broadcast 'Good Morning Beijing'. I hope everyone enjoys the sunny day. I and Ou Li will be back with you tomorrow morning from 6 to 10am with Beijing news and commentary."

"This is Radio Beijing International 2."

The station then cut to adverts.

Mao Lu frowned a little as he changed the radio channel to a music one. Kris Wu's Tian Di bursted through the speakers.

"208 casualties." he mumbled, he felt his heartache a little bit. He couldn't help but feel responsible. If only he'd been faster when using the sealing spell. If only he'd sensed the realm earlier and found the Irregularity before it was so big and so destructive. If only

"You shouldn't feel guilty about the 208 deaths, you did everything you could to defeat the monster right. You should only feel guilty if you didn't do anything." Chàng Bo easily noticed the conflicted expression on Mao Lu's face.

"Feeling guilt is normal, I know that I did what I could, but I can see the loved ones of those 208, mourning and crying. I can feel their anguish and their loss. If only I'd been better than maybe it wouldn't be like this." Mao Lu said bitterly.

"If, buts and maybes won't change anything. You're too sensitive. It's not like you killed those people." Chàng Bo argued.

"I know...I know." Mao Lu sighed and continued to drive in silence.

Chàng Bo didn't know how to respond. He could understand why Mao Lu was upset but at the same time he didn't. Chàng Bo had killed many people, heartlessly, for various different reasons over the years. He had never stressed over the deaths of others, he wasn't as compassionate as Mao Lu.

"DING DING DING", Mao Lu's car dashboard lit up with "Incoming call from Zhao Detong."

Mao Lu answered. "Hi Detong, what's up?"

"What's up?? You really don't check your phone at all do you? You haven't spoken to anyone since the housewarming party. Do you know how much everyone's been trying to get ahold of you. I mean with the snow and the earthquake. I and everyone else was worried something might have happened. I mean I know you're angry because of the embarrassing thing that happened at the end of the housewarming party but that's no reason to ignore everyone." Zhao Detong lectured.

Mao Lu felt sheepish and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I just I didn't even notice. I got distracted and forgot to call everyone back. You're all fine though right, I know you guys are okay?"

"How would you know when you didn't even call anyone to check if they were alright, but yeah everyone's fine. But it was close. Did you hear about what happened to Frank?"

Mao Lu knew what Detong was referring to but he answered, "No what happened?"

"He was travelling to Zhongshan park with some other officers at the time of the earthquake, he nearly fell into one of the craters that opened up. It was a real close call."

"Wow really, I'm glad he's okay." Mao Lu said.

"Yeah he's fine though, still in a bit of shock, though...so what are you doing today. Bing BIng and I were going to get dinner at the Xiling hotel later, do you want to join us?" Detong asked

"Xiling hotel...what time? I'm with Chàng Bo right now we were planning on hanging out today."

"Oh around 7PM, it's only 10 something now. It's ages away, and you can bring Chàng Bo with you too."Detong quickly replied.

"Okay, then we'll see you at 7." Mao Lu answered.

"Awesome." Detong cheered before hanging up.

As the call ended Mao Lu parked his car in the shopping district, he turned to Chàng Bo with a smile, so lets do a little bit of shopping and then I'll show you around Beijing okay."

"Okay."